cubic_spleen:LavenderWolf: If you use a gasoline powered vehicle, you are a fool or the gas companies have you by the balls because of a vehicle-centered culture. I wouldn't want to be in either place. There's no reason personal transportation should cost that much.

But god forbid people stop driving 1-2 ton steel behemoths and use a more sensible vehicle. No, you gotta go to the store in an explosion-powered death machine.

/there are no fatal car accidents, just negligent vehicular homocides.

I always get yelled at when I say things like "There are no accidents with cars. Everything is either deliberate or the result of carelessness." Then I say the same thing about guns and people really come unglued. It's almost like freedom(tm) and personal responsibility are mutually exclusive, or something.

"But he stepped off the curb and I wasn't expecting it!"

"Biatch, you drive two tons of steel at high speed. I don't care if he farking telegraphed you three weeks prior, you're still guilty of negligent vehicular homicide."

BTW, the easiest way to fight this is to use less gas. Things about that:

Drive less. Easiest way to save gas is to not drive as much.1 - Plan your trips. If you pass the grocery on the way home, don't go on the weekend, go during the week. That saves you the extra trip.2 - If you're going to run errands on the weekend, plan them so they all occur in one nice loop. Starbucks, the hardware store for whatever weekend project/home improvement you've got going, liquor store, grocery store, etc. Don't run home after every trip, wastes gas.3 - Carpool if you can.

Drive efficiently. Make those miles count1 - Don't go through the drive-thru. You waste gas idling.2 - Keep your tires aired up properly.3 - Make sure you're engine is in good tune.4 - Drive like grandma. Don't accelerate at WOT, coast when you can, drive the speed limit.5 - Get the junk out of your car. You might be carrying the weight of an extra person in the trunk with all the extra junk that's laying about.6 - Get to work earlier/later (if possible). Less traffic and all.7 - Leave work earlier/later (if possible). See above

If you start out by acknowledging that you lost the Civil War, and work your way up, someday you might be able to wrap your mind around the fact that you lost the 2008 election (and, by that time, 2012) as well. You need to learn to deal with it.

Why should one of the richest countries in the world pay some of the lowest prices for petrol / gas in the world?

/yes, I know, everybody else's prices will go up to, I just find it incredibly frustrating that a rich country with a history of making ludicrously uneconomical, inefficient cars moans about the price of fuel when they pay less than half the price paid by most Europeans and less than almost any other country in the world.

Not sure our cost/gallon for the fuel is all that different. However, our tax/gallon is very different.

I saw a post last week or two, something like we should move all funding for Defense to a gas tax. I been thinking I like this, if it's coupled to a reduction in income tax. Rednecks in giant trucks that like wars should approve, because more of their taxes go to defense, and if they don't want to pay the tax, they they can just drive less. (of course, they might decide less should be spent on defense, though). Libs on bikes should like it because less of their taxes go to defense. It's a fair tax though, it will get passed along to everybody at some level because everything gets transported. It's inescapable; no way to put your gasoline in a swiss or cayman account. It's nice and easy too: gas stations just put a sign up that says "$5 a gallon of the cost of this gas goes to support our troops" and up the price. It ought to reduce traffic, so our roads n bridges would last longer, and traffic jams would be lessened. I keep thinking of more reasons why this is a good idea.

Why would I panic over $6 gas? I purposefully got a house near work so I could bike and wouldn't have to worry about that shiat. As for other things getting more expensive... my rent and student loans won't get more expensive, and that's where most of my money goes anyway.

The Dutch also have basically the best biking road systems in the world so it is safe and efficient to ride. In the US I have to disjointedly find the safest route that will minimize the possibility of some dumb ho running me over while texting.

miss diminutive:If Israel instead took action in the spring, at which point gas prices are already expected to hover around $4 regardless of strife in the Middle East, then prices would go even higher:

If an attack occurs at that time and you add the same $2.50 increase that reflects crude oil at $200 per barrel, then - as incredible as it sounds- if Secretary of Defense Panetta's intelligence report is correct, your gasoline would be $6.50 per gallon.

So, uh....we've told Israel about this, right? They understand that this would be a bad thing for everyone? I don't want our economies to implode over a miscommunication.

I'm sure governments have thought this through - perhaps not well as governments are made of people who are fallible and often greedy, but yeah. The thing is, what will happen 20years down the road when Iran does have nukes and says if they don't get their way they will shut off oil AND throw nuclear missiles at not just Israel but anyone else who threatens their economic boom?

blondski:The Dutch also have basically the best biking road systems in the world so it is safe and efficient to ride. In the US I have to disjointedly find the safest route that will minimize the possibility of some dumb ho running me over while texting.

We also have rain and wind. fark that, I'm not cycling. (I live about 1 mile from the office where I work)

soy_bomb:You can benefit from their profits from the high cost of oil or just be a whining biatch. We see what you have decided.

You changed the entire argument. You were arguing "we" should be less dependent on the Mid East. By "we," were you referring to oil company shareholders? I don't think you were, but you're not smart enough to even admit your own error, you just put up smoke and hope no one notices what a cretin you are.

The Dutch don't roll in massive Recreational Vehicles and 4wd/8-tired grocery-getters. Get some perspective, Dutchie! Give us a call when your government is broke and paying out near-billions in entitlements to people who keep yelling about wanting to get rid of entitlements.

Dutchland is roughly the size of my scrotum, so it's not like you've got far to travel. Plus with all the dykes and everything, all you do is spend time watching lesbo pr0n, further reducing the need for driving.

Now, get back to being the place for Germany and England to settle their differences.

neaorin:BorgDrone: As someone who just filled up his car at $8.46/gallon; cry me a river.

In my country it's been hovering around $6.50 / gallon since about 2010. Meanwhile I've just come back from a trip in the Seattle area and people are still driving tanks everywhere.

Welcome to America, where in order to be "moar conservative" you drive the biggest, most gas wasting vehicle you can. Then you can look down on the "lie-brals" from your gigantic SUV. Also, you flush 16 times for every turd to be "moar conservative".

soy_bomb:LavenderWolf: You are a complete and utter fool if you think buying a few shares in Exxon will change anything that Exxon does. You have to *already be rich* to buy a meaningful share in the company.

You can benefit from their profits from the high cost of oil or just be a whining biatch. We see what you have decided.

I have no more interest in investing in oil now than I do investing in buggy whips 100 years ago. You should see the area I live in. Electric scooters and small-engine'd bicycles are becoming more numerous than you'd think possible in such a small town. People are starting to realize that they don't need to pay to carry around two tons of steel just because they want to get somewhere, and they're already tired of paying to do so.

With any luck, automobiles, as a personal means of transportation, will go the way of the telegram. Hardly used, but still technically available.

Dutchland is roughly the size of my scrotum, so it's not like you've got far to travel. Plus with all the dykes and everything, all you do is spend time watching lesbo pr0n, further reducing the need for driving.

Now, get back to being the place for Germany and England to settle their differences.

"We have far more ground to cover, so it makes sense that we use the most inefficient machines possible to do so."

LavenderWolf:ronaprhys: Get Your Dick Out Of My Food: It's $9 here in Amsterdam, so quit complaining.

Also, the Dutch don't even complain about the fact that it's $9.

We Americans could use some perspective before we start whining.

Dutchland is roughly the size of my scrotum, so it's not like you've got far to travel. Plus with all the dykes and everything, all you do is spend time watching lesbo pr0n, further reducing the need for driving.

Now, get back to being the place for Germany and England to settle their differences.

"We have far more ground to cover, so it makes sense that we use the most inefficient machines possible to do so."

Gas has held pretty steady most of my life while the value of the dollar and incomes tanked.

A real dollar from yesterday will still buy a gallon at yesterdays prices today but that may all be changing. The real thing that worries me isn't what that will do to the ecconomy but that they may have finally pushed once to often and they finally bring home a war that they can stay home and fight. When you are pushed it is natural to push back.

What if the latest lie is to manipulate us into a war that isn't about a perceived weapon but all about helping to complete a global system of central banks?

Remember; no matter how much honest money you and your friends can come up with to build your world the way you want, others can fire up the fake money presses and dictate their way.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul was Ron Paul before supporting Ron Paul for president was cool.

Yes, yes, we know, sweetie, W was just the swellest pres evar! And his hamfisted handling of international and domestic affairs isn't go to be a problem for America for years to come, because derpderpherpaderp.

Really, the W years are going to be in history books as "America's Great Failure."

It isn't there yet.Obama beat him to it!High military budget, high gas prices, Health care that magically pays for itself.unemployment high.You must be one of the few that still have a job and still get raises and are COMPLETETLY BLIND to the plight of others.How can you even kid yourself that this has been a good 3 years?He is not FDR and will never be no where near as famous.This comming election will have the worst selection of candidates, on all sides!

The Dutch also have basically the best biking road systems in the world so it is safe and efficient to ride. In the US I have to disjointedly find the safest route that will minimize the possibility of some dumb ho running me over while texting.

Having real cycling infrastructure is soooo un-American. I mean, just think about it -- we would have to invest in our own infrastructure, plan for the future, make cities more livable, be concerned about the welfare of all Americans... Besides, it would be absolutely impossible for one of the largest, wealthiest countries to do it -- only a time little country like the Netherlands could possible have the engineering talent to do it.

You must be one of those idiotic "conservatives" who think all people left of yourself want to do is take from the rich.

It's time to start taxing them proportionally i.e. more than poor folk, who have not reaped the benefits of society like the rich have. Yes, they currently are supposed to pay more in taxes. In practice, they dodge taxes like you and I would dodge piss-filled water balloons. In a time when the economy was going to shiat, they paid millions to lobby so they'd have to pay less in taxes. And, golly, look what happened.

And of course at the same time that the Republicans were deregulating everything in sight and cutting taxes on those who need their taxes cut the absolute least, the Republican president was starting one war which was unnecessary but somewhat justified, just to abandon THAT war to other nations so he could start an unjustified war.

No, raising taxes on the rich WON'T solve all these problems. But NOT doing so is like cutting off your foot so you can run faster.

Why would they? Paying that much is a choice. Last time I bothered to do the math, gasoline in Europe was generally slightly cheaper than gasoline in the US. You know, when you compare actual prices, not price-after-tax.